# How to make my own Aromatic Tobacco?



## Fordun

I want to try to case my own Tobacco and make some type of blend and im thinking about trying Coffee and i already tried Chocolate.

I simply put my tobacco in a altoids tin and hit that stuff with a little bit of Hot Chocolate and it worked nicely and it smells like Chocolate,And tastes like Chocolate until slowly transfering into a more mix of natural and Chocolate before the end of the bowl in which it just taste like tobacco.

Me and a friend of mine tried making some Cherry tobacco,Some Hotsauce tobacco,and some Lime and they were all tasteless but he took the lime to work on it some more.


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## Exille

I have a friend who did alittle casing a few years ago except only with liquors, fairly simple and it worked pretty good, he laid his tobacco out on a cookie pan and got a spray bottle and filled it with whatever he wanted to case with and just sprayed the tobacco until it was moist, let it dry for a few hours and then sprayed again, dryed and jarred it up.


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## Jeff10236

Anything liquid should be pretty easy to infuse into your tobaccos. I've heard of people spraying it on directly as the other poster said. Also, you can soak a water sponge or other humidifying agent with what you want to flavor your tobacco with and let it sit with your tobacco for a few months for a more subtle flavoring.

One thing to keep in mind whatever technique you use, the tobacco you use will have a major impact on how easily it takes. A Cavendish will already have some pretty aromatic properties, especially golden or Danish Cavendish (they are pretty sweet and they smell terrific already), and they hold flavorings pretty well. Burleys hold flavoring very well. Anything else _might_ work, but won't work as well (there is a reason most commercial aros have a pretty heavy dose of burley, Cavendish, or both).

As a side note, I really have to stop reading threads like this one. I used to blend my own tobaccos. It was fun, I found some blends that were my favorite at the time, but it also can take a lot of time and physical space (and not every blend you make is terrific). I quit about 6 or 7 years ago and I really don't intend to start again (there are too many commercial blends I want to try anyway and only so much time available). Every time I read a thread like this, I start thinking about starting it again.


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## Mante

Jeff10236 said:


> Anything liquid should be pretty easy to infuse into your tobaccos. I've heard of people spraying it on directly as the other poster said. Also, you can soak a water sponge or other humidifying agent with what you want to flavor your tobacco with and let it sit with your tobacco for a few months for a more subtle flavoring.
> 
> One thing to keep in mind whatever technique you use, the tobacco you use will have a major impact on how easily it takes. A Cavendish will already have some pretty aromatic properties, especially golden or Danish Cavendish (they are pretty sweet and they smell terrific already), and they hold flavorings pretty well. Burleys hold flavoring very well. Anything else _might_ work, but won't work as well (there is a reason most commercial aros have a pretty heavy dose of burley, Cavendish, or both).
> 
> As a side note, I really have to stop reading threads like this one. I used to blend my own tobaccos. It was fun, I found some blends that were my favorite at the time, but it also can take a lot of time and physical space (and not every blend you make is terrific). I quit about 6 or 7 years ago and I really don't intend to start again (there are too many commercial blends I want to try anyway and only so much time available). Every time I read a thread like this, I start thinking about starting it again.


Jeff, I'm LOL. Being new to pipes I wonder why anyone would bother since there are untold untried blends out there to try already. This is just my viewpoint as a pipe newbie though.


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## Jeff10236

Tashaz said:


> Jeff, I'm LOL. Being new to pipes I wonder why anyone would bother since there are untold untried blends out there to try already. This is just my viewpoint as a pipe newbie though.


Why? A few reasons. One, it is just another aspect of the hobby and, like fiddling with recipes, it can be rewarding when you find something that really works. Two, you can really tailor a blend to be exactly what you want- to this day, my favorite ever tobacco was an aro that I made myself. Well, it was not strictly an aro since it was only tobacco, but the proportions and types of Cavendish I used made it smell very aromatic and the blend of different Cavendish tobaccos, Virginias and Burleys tasted absolutely terrific (unfortunately, I lost the recipe). Last, like anything else, it can be fun to see how different ideas turn out.

Darn it, stop making me think about this...I *do not* want to start again, and now I'm thinking about it again:yell:


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## CWL

I've done it just to mess around. I've bought my share of tasteless tobaccos so I've wondered "what if I add...". 

Liquor is the easiest to top and certain flavors like vanilla and chocolate also work great. I have a home soda machine so I've used soda syrups on tobacco (doesn't work very well). You have to be careful to not make a sticky goopy mess that will foul your pipe and burn your tongue though.


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## Troutman22

I tried a different route. I took a house blend Aro that I liked and added some fire cured straight VA and touch of Per to it. I wanted an aro with a little more of a nic hit. It turned into "Black Death". I cant keep it on the shelves - let me know if you want some .


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## Xodar

I put every bag end I had for a few months into an old plastic lid style empty tin. No Latakia, but anything else was fair game, flake, VA, burley, whatever.

Over the time it took me to accumulate a couple solid ounces of bag ends I kept dousing the tin with 101 Wild Turkey to keep it moist. By the time I had it pretty much full it was really smelling pretty good, whiskey and almonds. I topped the can off with a handful of burley, soaked it good with more Turkey, and sealed and triple wrapped the can. I'm planning on opening it around Christmas to see what happened. Kind of neat to just experiment.
Of course, the irony is, if it's absolutely wonderful there is no way I can recreate it.


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## GuitarDan

PLEASE understand that many spices, herbs, plants, etc... that are entirely safe to eat; can cause severe health problems when burned and inhaled. 
For example: cocoa powder when burnt and inhaled significantly decreases the ability of the lungs to expel mucus.

Food Grade and Non-Toxic usually only apply to the characteristics of a substance in the form which it is sold... 

Since Big Tobacco is the only major industry interested in such information, there are very few studies to be found on the subject.

Also keep in mind that when tobacco is flavored by vegetable matter, say cloves. The manufacturers don't grind whole cloves and dust the tobacco. The use painfully precise methods to extract oil and/or water soluble components; and dispose of the solids. 

The US and British tobacco industry has had the absolute best labs and chemists in the world; going back to 1915 (and possibly earlier!) to find the most effective ways of flavoring their leaf at the best price point without inducing allergic reactions, asphyxiation, brain damage, blood clots, etc... Trivial things like lung cancer, not so much a concern... *chuckle* (sorry couldn't resist)

I've spent hundreds of hours procuring recipes, decoding them (it was amazing to me how cloak and dagger this got- not even plain water is ever referred to directly!), researching long obsolete industry jargon, etc... to come up with the conclusion that I don't care to spend a thousand dollars to make a pound of the 1962 version of Capstan Medium... 
I'll be content sampling current production blends, and squirreling away the stuff I like. 

I hope I didn't offend you or anyone. 
I wanted to answer the unasked questions of How hard can it be? Amazingly hard. What's the worst that could happen? Dying, suffering the effects of blood poisoning, a stroke, pneumonia, scarred lungs, a perpetually runny nose, etc... amazingly possible.

There are available flavorings for the "vaping" or e-cigarettes, that I imagine have been tested as "safe" for combustion use. I don't have direct knowledge or experience with that stuff; I'm only guessing. 

Regardless, Good luck!


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## Diodon nepheligina

I understand your point about the effort that goes into the recipes of many blends. It sounds like you are warning of the dangers of inhaling the smoke from some components like cocoa powder etc. Do you inhale your pipe smoke??


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## GuitarDan

We all inhale in the process of pipesmoking to various degrees... I don't pull the smoke into my lungs on purpose like a cigarette smoker... BUT...I retro-hale/snorke pipes and cigars, and I often smoke indoors...


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## Gigmaster

I have never heard of anyone dying from flavoring their own tobaccos. I am sure that the tobacco companies just use extracts, same as anyone else would use. Extracts come in just about any favor one might want to try, and are readily available at most grocery stores. Also, liqueurs and liquors should be perfectly safe to use, as these are most likely the basis for a lot of commercial tobacco blends, such as bourbon, rum, Creme de Cassis, Kahlua, Amaretto, etc...

Common-sense would dictate that it would be perfectly safe to use cooking spices, because they are burned when you cook with them anyway. How would you bake with cocoa without burning it to some extent? However, I would doubt that solids would be absorbed into the tobacco without first making an extract or tincture from them. Extracts are very easy to make. Just put your flavoring of choice into a glass jar with a small measure (just enough to cover it) of 80-100 proof vodka or grain alcohol, seal it tightly with the lid, and let it set for a few weeks. If the alcohol evaporates, just top it off every so often. 

I would advise against using any essential oils as casings. They contain large amounts of volatile oils that could be harmful, or at the very least will impart unpleasant tastes to your blends. 

As far as being harmful, you can find studies that will tell you everything is harmful, from soy beans, to spinach to even water. But, like I said, I've never heard of anyone dying from cooking spices, or extracts, with the exception of allergic reactions. 

It seems a little silly to worry about a slightly increased risk of cancer from an additive to tobacco, a known carcinogen. Since we are smoking, we have already accepted the risk, anyway. 

Just my opinion.


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## blendtobac

What you're talking about doing isn't casing a tobacco, you're looking for a top-dressing. Those are added at the end of the processing, and they're usually alcohol-based so the tobacco doesn't have to be reheated to dry out. The alcohol will flash off in a day or two. For that reason, liquors and alcohol-based extracts are your best bets. Casing is done at the beginning of processing, and they're normally water-based, and not signature flavors (cherry, vanilla, etc.), but sweeteners (molasses, licorice, sugared syrups). After applying, the tobacco goes through a drying chamber to get it back down to a useable moisture level.

Russ


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## Tobias Lutz

blendtobac said:


> What you're talking about doing isn't casing a tobacco, you're looking for a top-dressing. Those are added at the end of the processing, and they're usually alcohol-based so the tobacco doesn't have to be reheated to dry out. The alcohol will flash off in a day or two. For that reason, liquors and alcohol-based extracts are your best bets.Russ


That's awesome to know. I have jars and jars of ribbon cut Virginias that would be perfect to experiment on.


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## freestoke

This old thread makes me miss the old posters.


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